News Detail

School funding: the driving force behind the stopgap plan

6/10/2016

With no state budget in place, public schools won’t receive any state funding unless lawmakers work out a deal. Republican lawmakers and the Governor have stressed that ensuring schools can open in the fall is the most pressing issue currently facing the state, and have introduced several measures (SB 3434/HB 6583) that would fully fund K-12 education for the next school year.

The proposals would also “hold harmless” Illinois’ schools, meaning schools would receive the same level of funding they did for the last school year. The measures would also end the practice of “proration,” or the deliberate underfunding of the General State Aid that schools should receive, that has taken place over the last seven years. Republican legislators have urged their Democrat counterparts to support these measures, to guarantee schools aren’t held hostage due to the ongoing budget impasse.